Buffalo State Community Academic Center

Program Overview

Mission

The Buffalo State Community Academic Center (CAC) serves as a site where people from higher education and the local community meet to engage each other about matters of importance to children, families, and the West Side neighborhood. The center's mission is to coordinate and anchor cradle-to-career educational support programming for youth on Buffalo's West Side. Recognizing that the success of children is directly related to a viable social and economic infrastructure, the center also supports micro-enterprise development and partners with neighborhood revitalization efforts. With a special emphasis on the needs of refugee families, the center serves as a "hub" for work being done at various satellite locations in partnership with a variety of community-based organizations.

Vision

Buffalo State believes that education occurs within a social context and that for educational efforts to be successful that context needs to be acknowledged and addressed. Children need to be supported from cradle to career, in and out of school, if they are to become successful citizens of our complex society, and providing children with the full range of support they need often requires collaboration among a wide variety of groups. More and more it does take a "village" to raise a child.

To support this vision and to take responsibility for its contribution to it, Buffalo State has opened an educational support center on Grant Street in Buffalo's West Side. The center serves as a site of listening and learning: Buffalo State will listen to community partners, families, and children in order to better understand what is needed for children to be ready, willing, and able to engage fully in learning. Through partnerships and collaborative efforts Buffalo State will work to develop and support programming that will foster children's abilities to learn and to contribute to the improvement of their lives.

After School Programs:

This semester we are offering two after school programs. MAC+ provides additional supports to youth in Journey's End Refugee Services Making a Connection Program. Elementary Literacy and Arts provides children in grades K-4 with the opportunity to work with Buffalo State students to enhance their arts and literacy skills. The programs starts the week of Monday, February 25th and run through Thursday, May 1st from 3:30-5:30pm. Contact us at cac@buffalostate.edu or 716-878-3289 to register your child today!

Elementary Literacy & Arts - Monday and Wednesday 3:30-5:30pm

In the first hour of this program students in grades K-4 engage in literacy activities with Buffalo State volunteers. In the second hour, service-learners from Buffalo State's Theater and Art Education Departments design and teach original arts lessons. On Tuesdays, Buffalo State students in Joy Guarino's Creative Dramatics class teach a variety of creative movement and dance styles including jazz and hip hop. On Thursdays, Buffalo State Art Education students in Candace Master's Functions and Practices in Art Education and Michelle Bae's Art, Society, and New Media teach classes to provide youth with meaningful and imaginative art making experiences.

MAC +- Tuesdays and Thursdays 3:30-5:30pm

In this new program 16-21 year old students in Journey's End Refugee Service's MAC program receive additional support.

English Language Learner Programs:

Buffalo Beginnings-Tuesdays-Thursdays 1:00-3:00pm

In partnership with Journey's End Refugee Services, Buffalo Beginnings brings together newcomer refugee youth who have yet to begin school to learn about their new environment. This program introduces students of all ages and their parents to their new community and the American educational system.

Buffalo Public Multilingual Parent Drop-in Centers--First Mondays 4:00-6:00pm

The Drop-in Centers provide parents with access to translators speaking six languages including Spanish, Burmese, Karen, Arabic, Nepali and Somali to answer questions concerning school and family issues related to their children's education.

US Citizenship Classes - Saturday afternoons

Jericho Road Ministries volunteers support recent immigrants and refugees in preparations to take the US naturalization test.